


You Best Start Believing In Ghost Stories

by KingMTT



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Humantale (Undertale), College AU, F/F, GHOST STUFF, Haunted Houses, Human AU, M/M, Poltergeist Mettaton AU, Spooky Bisnis, Supernatural Elements, The college isn't the focus though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:40:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26609155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KingMTT/pseuds/KingMTT
Summary: Recently accepted into college, Papyrus finds a deal on a rental home that sounds too good to be true! Sure the house is a bit rickety, and definitely shows it's age. But they're all things he can look past! In fact, he finds the weirdly pink old Victorian house rather rustic and charming.There is...one catch though...Strange noises at night, the feeling of being watched, and a rumor around town that someone died there a long, long time ago. Nobody knows exactly who, or how, or if it's even true. But nobody's managed to live there for more than a month, and Papyrus has definitely ran into some things in there he can't explain.But, hey, cheap rent!
Relationships: Alphys/Undyne (Undertale), Mettaton/Papyrus (Undertale)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 41
Collections: Papyton Fics





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Quick notes on the human designs I'm using for the skeletons in this fic! Since this story is mainly told from Papyrus's POV I couldn't find a natural way to really wax poetic about their appearances.
> 
> Papyrus and Sans are based off yuramac's designs!  
> https://yuramec.tumblr.com/post/131380626619/human-papyrus-sheet-this-is-so-cute-aaaahhhhhh
> 
> And while Gaster is only mentioned in this chapter, he is based off 2eyedguy's design!  
> https://www.deviantart.com/2eyedguy/art/HUMANTALES-591470779
> 
> Everyone else I'll be able to actually describe what they look like in fic but I just wanted to get these ones off the bat! Anyway, enjoy this AU idea I thought up at like 2am and got like very attached to!

“This the place?”

“Yes! It is!” Papyrus replied, an excited tone in his voice as he turned to pull the moving van up into the driveway. He put it in park, leaning back into the seat with his hands propped against the wheels. He couldn’t stop tapping his fingers against it, a wide grin plastered across his face. “Isn’t it nice?”

Sans leaned forward to peer out the windshield, trying to get a better look at the house Papyrus had pulled up to. The old Victorian had a surprisingly cutesy exterior, the pastel pink walls, dark magenta roof, and white trimming made it almost look like a larger than life dollhouse. The little porch area out front was even fenced in with a iron fence that made little curly heart-shaped loops in the middle, which didn’t help with the dollhouse illusion, and neither did the matching curly heart planters hanging out of the upstairs window. Though the fact the roses in it were wilting did kind of kill the mood.

After getting a good eyeful of it, Sans sat back in his seat again. “Wow, y’didn’t tell me you were moving into Barbie’s Dream House. Since when have ya’ been such a huge fan of pink?”

“Well, it is not my favorite color, I will admit. But it is a very unique color for a house!” Papyrus protested, getting a little bit defensive of his new home. He had sought out the rental himself, and paid the nonpayment entirely with his own paycheck. And he was very proud of himself for all of that! Strange looking or not, it was his, and he was very happy with it.

Papyrus turned the keys in the ignition off, looking to Sans before he made any moves to get out of the van. “Now, if I may make a request. I must insist you be on your best behaviour? I have asked the landlord to help us move in.”

Sans gasped in a hurt manner, putting a hand to his chest. “What, me? Not on my best behaviour? Y’act like you don’t trust me!”

“I do trust you.” Papyrus clarified, “I just do not want you to make a bad impression on my new landlord. Can you please promise to not embarrass me…?”

Sans gave an over exaggerated sad face, sticking his bottom lip out in a pout and giving Papyrus large, sad eyes. “Yer breakin’ my heart.”

“Sans.”

Sans cut the shit, dropping the sad face and smiling. “Ah, alright. I’ll try and make the guy like me.”

“Thank you.” Papyrus nodded, finally pulling the latch to open the van’s door and sliding out.

The house’s front porch looked kind of like a gazebo, a half circular shape with a pointed roof above it and white fencing wrapping around either side. On either end of it was a door, both having glass in them and covered on the inside with baby pink curtains. Between them was some more windows, tall and arched above a cobblestone lower wall, and in front of that wall was a worn white bench. Sat upon it was probably one of the largest men Sans had seen in his life. He looked to be middle aged, probably in his 50s or 60s, with shaggy, long, blond hair and an even shaggier beard to match. He had a round face and a large nose, and was dressed in a floral print Hawaiian shirt with his hairy hands folded in his lap. He gave the two of them a warm smile as they got out of the car.

“Ah! Papyrus, it’s good to see you.” He called out, pushing himself up from the bench and making his way down the small pathway that led from the front step.

“You too, Mr. Dreemurr!” Papyrus called back, slamming the door to the van a bit harder than he had meant to and rushing to wind around the back. “I hope I did not keep you waiting for too long!”

The porch had a small yard in front of it, boxed in by a waist-high picket fence that had little hearts carved out of the tip of the wood. Aww. Asgore had to lean down to undo the latch on the gate, “Oh, not at all. You were quite timely, actually.”

“I try to not make a habit of missing appointments!” Papyrus threw open the back door of the van with a bit more gusto than what was probably necessary. But his excitement was spilling over into excess energy, and he couldn’t help it. He actually jumped the short distance from the ground to the step of the van, walking inside to look for some smaller items to grab first. 

While Papyrus was doing that, Sans decided he was going to try and make an impression on the man in charge. Slipping his hands into the pockets of his hoodie, he walked up to the large man waiting patiently by the fence gate.

“Didn’ know Santa Claus had a summertime look.” He remarked, catching the giant man’s attention.

“Oh!” Asgore gave a small chuckle, “Golly, you’d be surprised how often I get that. But, actually, my name is Asgore. I don’t believe we’ve met?”

“Nope.” Sans slipped his hand out of his hoodie pocket, holding it up to Asgore with a wide grin. “Name’s Sans, nice t’meetcha.”

“Sans.” The large man repeated, nodding his head once. “It is wonderful to finally meet you. I’ve heard good things about you from your father.”

He took the offered up hand, gripping it firmly and going to give it the standard businessman double bounce - but whatever he was about to say was interrupted by the long, comical fart noise that came out. Asgore paused, a bit startled by the sudden noise, but Sans’s grin just grew wider. He pulled his hand away, showing off that he had slipped a whoopee cushion into his palm.

“Never fails.”

Asgore blinked once, then smiled, giving a loud, warm laugh as he pulled his hand away to put in his own pocket. “Ah! Very clever! I haven’t seen a whoopee cushion used in that fashion before.”

“Sans!” Papyrus called out, having exited the back of the van with a box balanced in his arms, just in time to see the punchline. “I told you to make a good impression!”

“Oh, no worries at all!” Asgore reassured him, still smiling. “Nothing wrong with a little joking around.”

“Yea, Papy, listen to the big guy. Y’need to lighten up a little.” Sans flashed papyrus that signature wide grin, slipping the toy back into his pocket.

Despite the insistence on lightening up, his brother huffed, fixing the box in his arms to make sure it was secure before he stepped out of the van and walked up to the porch.

“Ah, allow me to get that for you.” Asgore followed Papyrus close behind, the floorboards of the porch creaking as he walked across it. He dipped into the chest pocket on his shirt to find the keys, of which there were three, that dangled from a little heart-shaped keychain that had the words “22 Waterfall Way” etched into it. The door squeaked in very horror movie fashion as Asgore pushed it open, stepping aside to let Papyrus in.

“Spooky.” Sans commented, following close behind.

“Ah, I’m sorry. This house just tends to be very vocal.” Asgore replied, waiting for the brothers to cross into the foyer before coming inside as well. “It’s an older house, as you can probably see. Actually, quite a historic location! Most everything in his house is original, besides some remodeling done to bring the wiring, plumbing, and such more up to date.”

The interior wasn’t as cutesy as the outside, and did look pretty old-timey. It was all carved dark wood and scuffed up wood flooring that continued to creak and groan as the trio walked through the house. Against the left wall of the entry hallway was a staircase that led up to the second story, the railing making a little curl outwards at the bottom step, which was bigger than the rest of them. The runner on the stairs was a faded pink color with a white floral patterning. Actually, a lot of the interior decorating was pink, Sans noticed. Which wasn’t the color he’d ever really thought to associate with spooky old houses.

The house wasn’t that big, but it also wasn’t that small. Immediately upon entering there were two doors on either side that led to other parts of the house. To the right was a set of opened double doors that led into the empty living room, and to the left was a short hallway with a kitchen on one side, and what Sans had to assume to be a dining room on the other. At the very end of the hall he noticed a closed door, but didn’t give it much mind, thinking it must’ve led to the basement or something.

A large kitchen was something Papyrus had listed as a must have when he was house hunting, as he liked cooking and did not want to have to cut corners on that. Sans was happy for him that he’d found a place that met that requirement, poking his head around the corner to get a better look at it. It was a vaguely half-oval shape with an island in the middle, also made with dark wood and had a pink countertop. The cabinets were made of similar wood, and had little patterned windows in them. At the apex of the circle was a pretty dated looking sink, directly above it being a square window that looked into the back yard, framed by faded pink curtains.

“Snazzy.” Sans commented to no one in particular. He pulled away from the kitchen to go back into the living room, where Papyrus and Asgore were joint carrying a couch.

He took the time to get a better look at the living room. He noticed a majority of the house was lined with a wall paper that Sans had to admit, he wasn’t a huge fan of. It was dark pink with symmetrical white polka dots, or at least they had probably been white at some point. The whole thing was so aged the pink was faded into a less saturated color, and the dots looked more yellow than white.

Sans leaned his shoulder against the door frame, watching the two very carefully set down the couch so it was facing towards the fireplace. “Couldn’t have brought that wallpaper more “up to date” too?”

Asgore pressed his hands into his lower back as he stood up straight, hearing it pop. He looked towards Sans when he spoke up, frowning deeply. “Well...I will say it is not for lack of trying. It’s very hard to do cosmetic remodeling on this place.”

“Oh?” Sans raised his brows, genuinely curious. “Why’s that?”

“It’s...a little complicated…” Asgore replied, looking slightly uncomfortable at Sans’s probing. “I apologize for being obtuse, but there’s not really a concise way to explain it.”

“Well, I like it!” Papyrus butted in with, setting down another box next to the couch. “I think it’s pretty!”

Sans shrugged, moving away from the doorframe. “Eh, guess that’s all that matters. I ain’t the one that’s gonna be starin’ at it every day.”

Asgore brushed his hands off on his shirt, tilting his head at the smaller of the brothers. “Oh? I was under the impression you two were moving in together?”

Sans shook his head, “Nope. Bro’s the big smart college boy. M’pretty content with the food truck gig I got goin’, just here to help out.”

“Ah, well, fair enough.” Asgore nodded, following Papyrus outside again to help bring in the next round of furniture.

It was good Asgore had agreed to help out, as Sans wasn’t the best in the carrying heavy objects department. He wasn’t very physically strong and had a bad back, but he did help by bringing in some of the lighter boxes, dropping most of them down next to the stairs. Sans tilted his head up, trying to get a look at the floor above. It sure was dark up there...The dark railing with carvings in the shape of roses wasn’t helping. The more Sans took in this place, the less it felt like Barbie’s Dream House, and more like Barbie’s Nightmare Mansion. Right down to the chandelier in the entry hall.

“This is a very good location for college!” Sans heard Asgore call out, turning around to see him and Papyrus dragging in the mattress. “It’s only about three miles from campus, and has three bedrooms in case you ever would like to have roommates.”

Sans moved out of the way of the staircase to let Papyrus set down his end of the mattress on the bottom step, looking at Asgore with a confused expression. “Three? I thought there were four? At least, that’s what the online listing said!”

Asgore leaned against his end of the mattress, suddenly looking very concerned. “Ah...I will have to speak to the lady in charge of my website about that. She must’ve listed it wrong, my apologies. I’d do it myself but,” He gave a good natured smile and a small laugh. “I’m old, technology escapes me, unfortunately. But, yes, the listing was wrong. There are only three, and a study that I suppose could be turned into a bedroom if needed.”

Papyrus’s brown eyes lit up in excitement, “Ooo! A study!”

Immediately he dropped the issue of the mislabeled listing, it wasn’t that big of a deal anyways. He was just going to be living by himself, so he didn’t really need three extra rooms anyways. It was just that living here was less expensive than a one bedroom apartment. He grunted as he picked up his end of the mattress again, leading the way as he and Asgore slid it up the stairs.

Sans followed at a safe distance behind them, wanting to get a better look at the second story. It was even spookier than he had initially thought. It was an octagonal space, with a door to a bedroom on every corner but one. On that corner, directly next to the stairs, the floor opened up into the aforementioned study. In the study there were three windows that faced out to the street, curved around a bench that was built into the wall. The only other sources of light were a window in a seemingly useless chunk of hallway in the back, in between two of the rooms, and a hanging fixture in the center of the space.

Papyrus chose to take the room that was directly diagonal from the study, the door in the top right corner. Since it was the only one with an adjoined bathroom. Asgore helped him slide the mattress into the room, letting it rest against the wall for now. The bed rame was still in a box downstairs, but Papyrus could put that together later without help.

“So...three miles from campus, two stories, three bedrooms, _and_ all that space downstairs? Damn, that’s pretty nice, even with the ugly wallpaper.” Sans looked around the room Papyrus had decided to call his own, seeing that the same yellowed pink polka dot wallpaper persisted here as well. He looked back towards Asgore, “How much you askin’ for this place again?”

“700$ a month.” Asgore replied curtly.

Sans whistled, “ _700$_? You ain’t pullin’ my leg, are ya’, boss man?”

Asgore shook his head, “I am not. Normally I charge 800$ for this house, but considering your father is an old friend of mine, I would like to give a discount.” At that last part he smiled again.

“Man. Big house, close to campus, 800$ a month. That’s a steal. The studio apartments ‘cross the way probably charge three times that much.” Sans rubbed his chin in theatrical thought, humming. “Yanno, bet if you charged 900$, you could afford to change that wallpaper.”

Asgore blinked in confusion. “Are...you willing to pay 900$?”

“Oh, definitely.” Sans nodded, putting his hands in his pockets again. “Pap’s real in love with the place. In fact, bet he’d be willing to pay a thousand. Then y’could probably repaint the outside too.”

Again Asgore stumbled over his words. “I- Well, I am flattered that your brother likes this house so much. But I would feel bad charging that rate.”

“Aw, why? Never heard someone say no to more money.” Sans grinned widely, a mischievous look in his eyes. “You know what? Two thousand, final offer.”

Sans suddenly felt a glare on his neck, and glanced to the side to see Papyrus sitting on the window bench behind him. He was probably about to get chided for trying to negotiate his rent to more than twice the price he’d agreed to. Sans even had a witty response at the ready, turning around to face the bench and opening his mouth to speak-

Only to see Papyrus wasn’t there.

In fact, no one was there. 

San’s grin disappeared. Huh…? He heard the front door squeak open again, and he peered over the railing. There was Papyrus, coming back inside again with a box in his arms, the word “FIGURES” scrawled on the side. Sans looked towards that window bench again, he could’ve sworn...

...Suddenly he didn’t feel like joking around anymore. 

Sans cleared his throat, turning back to Asgore. “Eh, anyway. Just messin’ with ya’, boss. But damn, honestly that does feel like undersellin’. How’s your business goin’?”

Asgore led the way back downstairs, which Sans was silently grateful for. He didn’t want to be on the second story anymore. There was something about that floor...something about that room...He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he had the cold feeling of unwelcomeness. The feeling went away when he was downstairs again, and he let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

“Well, I must admit this house is at such a discount due to some flaws.” Asgore said slowly, leading them back into the living room. “As I said, it’s a very old house that I can’t remodel. It is...difficult to find people willing to work on this place. Besides that, there is also the fact the attic doesn’t open. I’ve tried.”

“I have no issues with any of those!” Papyrus butted in with, picking up the long box that held his dismantled bed frame. He leaned it against the end post of the stairs for now. “I think I will have enough storage space with the extra rooms, and I do like the interior design!”

“Well, I am happy to hear that.” Asgore sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Such things have scared off too many people from renting this place. And it’s a shame, it’s a very pretty house in my opinion. But maybe my tastes are just rather old fashioned.”

“Man, that’s surprising.” Sans plopped himself down on the couch. “I hear most college kids will put up with just ‘bout anything if it means cheap rent.”

“Well, there is also the fact some of my previous tenants have spread a rumor around town about this house.”

Sans raised his eyebrows again, “Rumor? What kinda rumor?”

“Ah, complete nonsense.” Asgore shook his head, waving his hand dismissively. “I would not worry about it too much.”

“Sounds sus.”

“Oh, quiet, Sans!” Papyrus huffed, folding his arms across his chest and puffing out his cheeks. “Regardless of whatever rumor there is. I highly doubt it matters, or is even true! I like this house, and I plan to stay here!”

“Ay, just makin’ convo. No need to get ornery.”

Asgore coughed, tugging at the collar of his shirt. “Well, regardless of your stance on the matter, I am glad you’re willing to look past it. I’ve had such struggle getting people interested in this place due to it. It’s so strange...I even had one tenant take out a one year lease, and then go live somewhere else for the entire duration of it.”

“Did they still pay the rent?” Sans questioned, getting back up from the couch as Papyrus headed back outside.

“They did, they did...I will give them that.” Asgore nodded, “Still, it does not change how odd the whole situation was.”

“Ay, _lease_ they paid.” Sans waggled his eyebrows, hoping to get some sort of reaction.

Papyrus turned away from the van, rattling the box of dog toys he was holding. “I will drop this on your foot.”

Asgore smiled a little at the dumb joke, giving a chuckle. “Ah, no. That was clever, I like it!”

Sans mimed wiping a tear from his eye. “Finally, someone that appreciates me.” He turned to Papyrus, who was still sticking his bottom lip out in a frustrated pout. “Why can’t you appreciate me like that, Papy?”

Before Papyrus could respond, Asgore’s phone went off suddenly. He reached into his pants pocket to fish out the outdated flip phone, opening up and reading a text message that flashed across the screen.

“Hm...Oh dear, it seems I have something I need to attend to. Ah, I’m very sorry.” He closed his phone and put it back into his pocket. “Will you boys be able to finish this up on your own?”

“It should be no problem!” Papyrus nodded enthusiastically. “I just needed help with the big furniture! Everything else I’m sure Sans and I can handle. Thank you very much for all of our help!”

Asgore smiled, it was so nice to deal with someone as polite as Papyrus was. “Ah, good. It’s no problem at all, I’m happy to help.”

Before he went, he reached into his chest pocket again, producing the keys he had used earlier. He reached out and took Papyrus’s hand, flipping it over and dropping the keys into his palm. “All yours, my boy. Enjoy it.”

* * *

It only took another half an hour to finish getting everything out of the van. Papyrus didn’t actually have that many belongings to move, even with the extra furniture Gaster had gifted him to fill up his new home with. It was just kind of hard to fill all the space he had been allotted when he had only planned for a small apartment. He had never expected to have an entire house to himself. Oh well! He’d just have to get some more furniture to liven up the place down the line.

Papyrus would admit, the place did initially catch his eye due to it’s extremely low price. Sans had only been slightly exaggerating when he said a studio apartment in this same location, especially the luxury student housing across the street, probably would’ve wanted to charge him three times the rent he was paying here. The fact the landlord was an old college friend of Gaster’s was just the cherry on top.

It hadn’t been the same college Papyrus was attending, but how cool would it have been if it was!

He dragged a desk, still in it’s IKEA box, up the stairs to put down in the study for now. Just to make it so there were less things to shuffle around when he got to unpacking all of this. Sans had refused to help him bring anything else upstairs, which Papyrus would admit, made him just a bit mad. It was even more than his usual laziness, it was more straight up refusal. Sans wouldn’t budge that he didn’t want to go upstairs, citing that his knees hurt. Papyrus was a little frustrated, but instead of wasting time arguing about the matter, he decided to do it himself. He laid the box against the wall, planning to put it together another day. He wondered what other kind of furniture he could get to put in this room. He was genuinely very excited about having a study! It just felt so high class and fancy! Maybe he could start with getting something to put on that little window bench. Right now, the plain wood looked very uncomfy to sit on. He could find some sort of comfy mat, maybe, and some colorful throw pillows.

Papyrus rounded the railing and headed back downstairs again, seeing that Sans was still lounging on the couch. Sunk down so low that his neck was bent at an odd angle on the back of the couch, which he doubled was comfortable. He was staring at the turned off TV screen that Papyrus had decided to mount above the fireplace.

“That’s a very interesting show you are watching!” Papyrus said as he walked in.

“Yea, real thrillin’.” Sans agreed, sitting up a little bit straighter. “I really like the part where the black square gets it’s big close up.”

Papyrus took his seat next to Sans on the couch. “I need to call to get the cable and WiFi turned on here. That will have to be on my to-do list for tomorrow! I think we have done plenty for today.”

“Sounds good t’me.” Sans agreed, sighing. “M’bone tired.”

Papyrus mimicked his sighing, “Agreed.” He put his hands on his knees, shoulders slumping. “Who knew moving was so exhausting!”

“Big shocker, ain’t it?”

Sans tilted his head up to look at the ceiling, grimacing a little bit when he saw that it was lined with it’s own unique brand of ugly old wallpaper. It was busy and loud, and like the rest of this place, mostly pink. It had too many different patterns. The border running around the edge of the room had it’s own pattern, the border on the inside of that one had a different pattern, and there was a third, completely distinct pattern on the border that ran around the white spot (well, yellowed) in the center of the room, where the light fixture hung from. Which, Sans noted, was also a cute pastel pink. Somehow he preferred the polka dots.

“Man, yanno it’s gonna feel real weird not havin’ ya around.” Sans looked away from the awful ceiling, tilting his head in Papyrus’s direction.

“Well, of course you are welcome to visit my home anytime you’d like!” Papyrus reassured him, folding his hands together. “You can even stay with me on nights I don’t have classes, if you are so inclined! I’ll have to turn one of those extra bedrooms into a guest room.”

Papyrus paused, staring at his feet. The tone of his voice suddenly changing into something more somber. “I...Will admit, though. It is going to feel strange to live alone.”

“Ay, least you won’t be completely alone.” Sans teased, nudging his shoulder. “I’m bringing over your big vicious guard dog tomorrow, remember?”

Papyrus had to laugh at that, “That is true! Though I don’t think he’d make a very good guard dog. Toby just tries to befriend everyone.”

“You don’t know what he’s hidin’ under all that fluff. Maybe he’s secretly ripped, maybe if anyone tried to break into your place he’d just punch ‘em to death.”

“No, he is not!” Papyrus argued, “You have seen him shaved!”

“Not since last summer. He could’ve been hittin’ the gym since then. You don’t know what he does when we’re not home.” Sans snickered, stopped himself. “Sorry, am I scarin’ ya jokin’ about people breaking in?”

Papyrus pinched his fingers together, “Just a little bit.”

“Ah, sorry. I’ll quite it.” Sans shrugged, looking down at the ground - oh god even the rug was ugly - “I’m just jokin’ with ya, Pap. I don’t think anyone’s gonna see this dump and think “Man, that place definitely’s got a ton of valuables.”. ‘Specially considerin’ it’s a college town.”

“Good point!” Papyrus nodded, deciding to ignore the comment about the house being a dump. As if Sans had any room to talk with the state his room was in.

“And, hey, you ever get scared you’re welcome to call me. Or come back home for a few days if ya’ need to. House will always be open to ya’.”

“Thank you, Sans, I do appreciate that.”

“Course.” Sans nodded, getting up from the couch and stretching his arms up above his head with a loud yawn. “Anyway - I should get goin’. I don’t like drivin’ at night.”

Night? Papyrus pulled out his phone to check the time on it. The screen read out 7:00pm. When did it get that late…? Goodness, how time flies! He’d have to go up and start putting his bed together if he didn’t want to end up sleeping on the couch that night.

“Ah, it is getting late.” Papyrus confirmed aloud, getting up from the couch as well to see Sans out. “Drive safe, please! I need to return that van tomorrow in one piece!”

“I’ll try keep my damage down to two pieces, max.” Sans teased, throwing out his arms to either side of him. “Can I get a hug?”

Papyrus was never going to say no to a hug, even though he had to crouch down to reach his much shorter brother and lift him off the ground a little. He squeezed so tight that Sans wheezed a little, laughing when Papyrus finally put him back down. “Jeez, you act like you’re never gonna see me again!”

“I will just miss you, is all!” 

“Well, you won’t need to miss me too long. Good thing I’ll be back tomorrow.” Sans turned the knob of the door, giving Papyrus a two-fingered salute on his way out. “Night, bro, see you later.”

Papyrus waved to Sans as he shut the door behind him. He went up to lock it once he was outside, peering through the window as he watched the headlights of the moving van turn on and pull out of the driveway. The lights retreating down the street until Papyrus couldn’t see them. Double checking that the door was locked, Papyrus turned around to look at his entry hall in wonder. It was really amazing, moving boxes he needed to sort through and all.

Wowie. He half couldn’t believe it. He really did it, he had his own house! He was going to college! It was probably one of the most exciting things that had ever happened to him in his entire life!

So why was he so nervous about it?


	2. Chapter 2

After Sans had left, Papyrus decided to get off his butt and actually go put his bed together like he said he would. He had to keep going back and forth with the instructions to make sure he was doing this right, the car shaped bed frame was a lot different than the ones he was used to. Yes he was an adult. Yes he wanted the race car bed. What was the point in being an adult and living on your own if not for the ability to make your own decisions, and those decisions including being able to get the things you wanted as a kid but never could? The only con was he could only manage to find this type of bed in twin sized, but that was fine. It’s not as if he was going to be sharing his bed with anyone besides his dog.

He really wished he’d been able to bring Toby over day one, he felt rather lonely not having even him around. But, Gaster had made a very good point about trying to move furniture while you had a dog running around your feet. That’s also if he didn’t decide to make a run for it while the fence was open. Which reminded him that he would have to check out the back yard’s fence situation before letting Toby out there on his own, he already knew he was going to install an extra latch on the front gate. Toby was a wily one, he’d broken out of more than one yard before.

But, regretfully, these were all things he’d have to do tomorrow. Since it was 9pm, according to his phone. He hadn’t realized it had taken that long for him to put his bed together. But, to be fair, he had taken a break to get food from the takeout restaurant down the street somewhere during the process. It was probably a good time to get ready for bed, as he had a lot of things to get done tomorrow. He’d already showered and brushed his teeth, he’d just have to go back downstairs to get his bedding and pajamas.

But, not to worry! As Papyrus was very organized. He had packed all of his bedtime necessities into their own box exactly for this occasion! All he had to do was sit said box next to the stairs as he did his nightly routine on the bottom floor. Even though he had only been here a few hours, he still felt the need to go through the house and make sure everything was turned off and in it’s place. Or, as in it’s place as it could be while he still had packed boxes scattered all over the house. He made sure to turn off all the lights in the living room and kitchen, double check to make sure the stove was turned off (even though he’d never even turned it on), and made sure all the doors leading to the outside were locked. Everything looked good down here, so he scooped his box up and headed up to repeat the process upstairs.

He dropped his box down near the door to his bedroom before making a lap around the top floor. He closed the doors to the other two rooms, though he strangely couldn’t remember opening them, closed the blinds on the extra window, made sure the central light was turned off, and then slipped back into his own room to make his bed and change into his pajamas.

Another thing that was going to be different now that he lived alone was the ability to keep his door open while he slept. He had gotten into the habit of keeping his door closed by default, he told himself it was for privacy’s sake but he actually couldn’t recall how that had gotten started. He probably picked it up from Sans somewhere, who always kept his door closed no matter what. It was probably to hide the trash pile his room was, but he would not confirm nor deny. But! Again, seeing that he lived alone now, Papyrus chose to leave his bedroom door wide open. He thought it’d be a change for the better, especially when he had Toby back. No more getting up in the middle of the night to open the door for him!

He folded up his clothes he’d been wearing that day and sat them on top of his drawers for now, he’d have to sort that into the laundry room in the morning. He turned off the light and gave the room one last once over before he tucked himself into bed. He had a few boxes he needed to sort through in the morning stacked into the corner, the dresser was straightened up, bathroom night light plugged in, fingers on the door frame….yep, yep! Everything was where it should be!

With all that sorted out, Papyrus nestled himself down in his bed. Blankets pulled up to his chin, he rolled over and pressed his face against his teddy bear, eyes shut.

…

Fingers on the door frame?

Papyrus shot up in his bed, it finally hitting him what he’d just said to himself. He stared at the door frame with wide eyes, making sure he wasn’t crazy. There, he saw it, curled delicately around the edge of the door frame was what _definitely_ looked like pale fingers. They were faint and barely noticeable, but unmistakably hand shaped. Papyrus’s breath hitched as he stared at it, the talk of home intruders from earlier that day flooding back to the forefront of his mind. His gaze flicked to the empty foyer, trying to make out who or what the hand surely belonged to.

All he could see was an eye. Unnaturally pink, and staring straight through him.

Papyrus froze, a thousand and one scenarios running through his head of what he should do. Should he hide? Call somebody? Try and fight them? Everything that popped up in his mind was filtered through a thick layer of panic as he had a stare off with the eye in the doorway. It didn’t move, it didn’t blink, it just stared. Slowly the fingers moved from the edge of the frame, the eye shifting higher up as if the person was standing taller. Oh god, was it coming closer?

And then Papyrus blinked, and it was gone.

Papyrus let out the breath he’d been holding, squeezing his hand to his chest as he tried to get his heart to stop pounding. Part of him wanted to check outside his room to find out where - _whatever that was -_ had gone. But the slightly more logical part of his brain won out in that, worst case scenario, that’d likely get him killed. That bit of brain with a little more common sense was screaming at him to hide, that whatever was out there wasn’t worth it, and maybe they’d just leave if he didn’t bother them.

In the end, none of these warring parts of his mind won out as he just stared dumbly at the open door.

Despite Papyrus’s racing heart and frazzled nerves, nothing else happened. He stared into the darkness beyond his door for what felt like hours.

Papyrus took a deep breath, lacing his fingers through his hair and thunking his head back against the wall. He reasoned to himself that he was just seeing things. Sans had gotten him on edge by making jokes about break ins. That had to have been it, it was just an unfamiliar place, he was tired, Sans had gotten him having unwanted thoughts.

Regardless, he decided to sleep with his door locked and blocked and the blankets thrown over his head.

* * *

Papyrus was woken up the next morning by the sound of his doorbell going off. Which, fun fact, he hadn’t actually known he had up until that point. He pushed the blanket off his head and squinted at the floor, trying to see his phone screen from here. What time was it? He gave up trying to have supersight and just reached out to scoop it up, flicking his thumb across the screen to check his messages. He saw he had a text from Sans, which he decided to read as he got out of bed to go check the door.

To wind himself down after what he’d, at this point, reasoned out to be a bad dream, Papyrus had been texting Sans until about 12am. At which point he’d gotten too tired to keep his eyes open and finally fallen asleep. The last message he had sent had been “I WANT TO SEE MY LITTLE BOY!!”

To which Sans had replied, only two hours ago, “here he comes”. Attached was a photo of a fluffy white dog sitting in the passenger seat of his truck, mouth opened wide and panting at the camera. Sans must’ve gotten him to pay attention to it by holding up a treat or something.

Papyrus gasped, jumping out of bed and rushing to his door. He paused briefly as his attention was caught by something near the knob, noticing four symmetrical scratch marks in the wood of the frame. He reached out to brush his thumb over it, noting they were pretty shallow. Suddenly the hallucination from the night prior all made sense to him, and he laughed. The “fingers” were just scuffs in the door frame! Sans’s joking had gotten him all worked up about people breaking in and he started seeing scratch marks as fingers, goodness! At this rate he’d need to get glasses like dad.

...But what about the eye?...

He decided to push past that, he had a dog to greet! He threw open his door and ran down the stairs in excitement. He hadn’t even bothered to take the time to change out of his pajamas first, throwing open the front door and spreading his arms wide in preparation. He was immediately bowled to the ground by a cloud in the vague shape of a dog, face getting covered in doggy kisses and slobber. But mostly slobber. Papyrus laughed, wrapping his arms around Toby’s neck as the dog’s entire body wiggled with the force of how hard his tail was wagging.

Sans stood in the doorway balancing a pizza box on one hand, he looked down at his brother and laughed a little bit, “Wow, you’re still in yer jammies? That’s unlike you.”

Papyrus eventually managed to push Toby off of him enough that he could sit up, “What do you mean “still”? I’ve just woken up!”

Sans raised a brow. “Really? S’like one o’clock, dude.”

One o’clock…? That didn’t sound right, Papyrus wasn’t one to sleep in. In fact, if he recalled correctly, the latest time he’d ever woken up was 10am, and that had only been once. His phone had been knocked a short distance across the floor when Toby jumped on him, he had to stretch his arm out to scoop it up. The screen confirmed that Sans wasn’t messing with him, the numbers reading back “1:15”. Great, what a way to start the semester; ruining his sleep schedule.

“So it is!” Papyrus pushed down his disappointment in himself with a happy demeanor. He pushed himself to his feet and gave Toby a scratch between his ears as the dog continued to run circles around his ankles. “I guess I just had a bit of a rough night!”

Sans snorted, “Seems like it. What spooked ya’ so bad to be textin’ me that late?”

Papyrus paused, not really wanting to talk about his paranoid delusion. “Oh, just a bad dream. It’s nothing!”

“Yea? That sucks.” Sans shut the door behind him finally, walking to the kitchen and holding the pizza box high above his head. Toby moved away from Papyrus and trailed behind him, doing little hops as if he could jump high enough to snatch it from Sans’s grasp. “Anyway, sorry it took so long to get here. Tried to order the pizza delivery so it’d be here already when I drove up. But, get this, said they don’ deliver to this house. Ain’t that crazy?”

“That is rather strange,” Papyrus mused, pulling a chair up so he could sit down to eat. “We are near many apartments! I cannot imagine why they would not deliver to this area. But, regardless, thank you for buying lunch!”

“Yea, don’t mention it.” Sans dug out some napkins from Papyrus’s designated ‘kitchen stuff’ box, dropping them on the table to use as makeshift plates. “Y’don’t got any food around here yet, so.”

It was only after Sans made that comment that Papyrus realized he hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday’s takeout dinner. He ended up taking three slices for himself, rolling up the sleeves of his pajama shirt to his elbows before digging in. Sans couldn’t help but laugh a little bit at the image.

“Man! Maybe I should’a gotten more!” Sans made himself up his own plate, resting his elbows against the table. “Anyway, I wouldn’t worry much ‘bout the whole delivery thing. Y’didn’t hear it from me, but dad says he wants to get ya’ a car.”

“Ohhh!!” Papyrus’s eyes grew wide, “How exciting!”

”Yea, yea, keep it quiet though. Brush up on yer actin’ skills. I don’t think I was ‘spose to spoil the surprise.” Sans winked, leaning his cheek into his hand. 

There was a scraping noise that caught Sans’s attention, looking over to see that Toby had hopped up onto one of the empty stools. He had his paws folded on the table like a polite little gentleman, ears perked high and staring at Sans expectantly. Sans took one of the slices of pizza and tossed it to him, Toby snatching it out of the air in his mouth and hopping to the ground. He trotted off to the other room to eat, tail wagging high behind him.

“So...anyway,” Sans continued, folding his arms on the table. “What’s the plan for today? May as well help out a lil while I’m over here.”

Papyrus hummed, chewing thoughtfully. He was still getting through his share of food, “Hm...well, first I need to change into actual clothes. I do wish I had woken up earlier, I still have so much I need to do!”

“Ehhh, I wouldn’t sweat it much. Your classes don’ start ‘till next week,” Sans pointed out, “Y’got aaallll week to do all’a that.”

“I am not one to procrastinate. But you do have a point.” Papyrus folded up the paper towel he had been using as a plate, as well as taking the one Sans had been using. Oh! That did give him an idea. “I know what we can work on! After I get changed, we can put all the dishes up!”

“Sounds good t’me.” Sans pushed the chair away from the counter and hopped down to the floor. “I’ll go ahead and start diggin’ ‘em out. You go do you.”

“That would be very helpful! I will try to be quick!” Papyrus said as he stood up as well. He took the time to close the lid to the pizza box and pack it away in the fridge before he made his way upstairs. Ah, that’s where Toby went! He had finished his share of pizza, and was now sitting a short distance away from the window bench. He stared out the window intently, making those not quite barking boofing noises at it as he bounced on his front paws. 

“It’s a nice view, isn’t it?” Papyrus commented, but Toby didn’t even acknowledge him. He was glued to that spot on the window, lips pulled back and giving a concerned growl. There was probably a spiderweb in the corner or something of the like, Papyrus decided to leave him to it.

He noticed the doors to the extra rooms were all propped open again. Strange...hadn’t he closed them all last night? Maybe there was an issue with the latches? Oh well, it didn’t matter much. He just went through and closed them again before going back to his room. He fished a pair of shorts and a t-shirt out of his bags and took the time to make his bed, since he hadn’t gotten a chance to do that either. He also contemplated brushing his teeth - another morning task he’d regrettably skipped - when from behind him he heard Toby suddenly scramble to his feet and start howling, claws scratching across the hardwood floors as he bolted down the stairs. Papyrus flinched at the noise, the high pitched scraping noise hurting his ears. He reached out to shut the door to his room, knowing Sans would probably be able to calm the dog down himself-

“OW FUCK-”

-Which was quickly aborted when he heard Sans cry out, followed by a loud crash, with Toby’s continual barking joining the cacophony. Papyrus yanked the door back open again, rushing down the stairs to see what had happened. Sans was backed up against the counter, clutching his hand to his chest and swearing under his breath. There was a box on the island, which had been tipped onto it’s side; a large portion of it’s contents laid on the floor in pieces. 

“Sans!” Papyrus called out, rushing up to him. He disregarded the mess of broken dishes, those could all be replaced with a quick Dollar Store trip, he was more concerned with his brother. “What happened?”

Sans huffed, glaring at a particular spot on the counter, “D-dude your silverware attacked me-”

Papyrus followed where Sans was staring, his expression turning to one of shock. There was a knife stabbed into the counter, blood coated it’s edge and a similarly red smear marring the cute pink-painted countertop. Papyrus got closer to it, grabbing it’s hilt to pull it out. But he found it was buried deep into the wood, and his tugging on it didn’t make it budge. It didn’t just fall, it was stabbed in there with purpose. He let go of it, backing slowly away from the counter. He didn’t take his eyes off the knife, as if the moment he looked away it was going to pop up and cut him too. His concentration was broken when he heard Sans hiss in pain behind him.

“Ah jeez, that smarts-” He grunted, finally pulling his hand away from his chest to inspect the damage. A deep gash ran along the crook of his thumb and into his palm, blood oozing down the length of his forearm. “Fuck, I think I need stitches.”

Papyrus leaned over to inspect the wound as well, biting his lip in concern. “Oh dear. Do you need me to drive you to the ER?”

“Nah, nah, it-it ain’t that bad.” Sans stuffed his hand under his jacket, holding it against his shirt. “It’s just bleedin’ lots, no biggie. Just gimme somethin’ to wrap it up in and I can drive myself.”

“Are you sure?” Papyrus asked as he went back over to the upturned box, pushing it back up and digging through it. He had cushioned his plates with his dishtowels. Which seemed like a good idea at the time… “I wouldn’t want you to drive unsafe.”

“Yea, yea, don’t worry ‘bout it.” Sans took the towel that was offered to him, pulling his hand out of his jacket long enough to wrap it up. There was a blood stain on his white shirt, the unfortunate location directly above his heart made it look like a murder scene. “Y’got better stuff t’do today than worry ‘bout me gettin’ cut.”

“If you’re absolutely sure…” Papyrus pressed, following Sans to the front door. He was surprised to see that Toby was nowhere around, usually the dog go very concerned when one of the brothers was hurt or upset. But he seemed to have run off somewhere. From the floor above, Papyrus heard the sounds of scampering and boofing. While that at least solved the mystery of where he’d gone, it didn’t explain why he was up there instead of down here offering emotional support.

“Pap, it’s fiiine.” Sans reassured him, using his good hand to open up the door. “It ain’t the worst condition I’ve ever drove in-”, he laughed, “I mean, if y’ really wanna help out. Maybe start by gettin’ rid of your haunted knives.”

Papyrus reluctantly nodded, “Alright then. Will you at least call me when you’re done?”

“Course,” Sans nodded, “If they need to amputate though, I’m listin’ you as a donor.” 

He laughed at his own joke as he walked out the door. Papyrus triple checking to make sure it was locked behind him. Once Sans was gone, he turned back to look into the kitchen. The knife was still stuck in the same place, no surprise there. He wasn’t sure why he had expected a change. The light from the window glinted menacingly off the steel blade, for the first time Papyrus noticed there was some blood on some of the broken dishes as well. He was definitely going to end up throwing that knife out, he didn’t think he’d be able to look at it the same way ever again. 

The comment about haunted knives stuck to the back of his mind as he cleaned up the shattered glass.

* * *

Papyrus decided to take Toby on a walk. 

He needed a break anyways, and with the way the dog had been barking at the windows for a solid hour, he guessed Toby really wanted outside. He had made Toby wait until he was done mopping up the mess, but besides that he wasn’t complaining. The fresh air would be good for him, especially after the events of the day thus far.

Sometime during his walk, Sans had finally called him and confirmed that they needed to stitch his hand. Other than that, it wasn’t that serious of an injury, which Papyrus got an “I told you so” over. However, in response Papyrus lectured Sans about safe driving while he had an injured hand. He ended up sitting down at a bus stop bench and chatting for a while as Sans was stuck in the ER with nothing better to do. Toby was well behaved enough to just explore around the bus shelter without getting in the street, and eventually laid down to take a nap in the grass. But all good things must come to an end, and eventually Sans had to hang up so he could inform dad of what had happened before he got a mystery hospital bill. Which left Papyrus alone with his thoughts on a bench.

He decided to just relax for a minute, enjoy the outside air, admire his surroundings, let Toby nap for a while longer. He looped the leash around his wrist and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jacket, tilting his head to admire the posters and sheets of paper taped up to the inside of the bus shelter. Most were for local businesses or lost pets, but one in particular caught his attention. It was printed on neon blue paper and taped up in Hello Kitty patterned duct tape, little clipart cartoon ghosts surrounding the text;

**!!!FREELANCE PARANORMAL INVESTIGATORS!!!**

Specializing in ghost hunting* and Mothman sightings!!!! 

*legally not allowed to perform exorcisms. 

CALL NOW! 

Surprisingly, it was the Mothman part that actually caught Papyrus’s attention, considering they lived on the complete opposite end of the country than West Virginia. The bottom of the flyer had some of those little tear away phone numbers, with the instructions to “Call Alphys!”. Only two of them were gone. 

Papyrus thought that this Alphys person at least seemed like an interesting person to befriend, even if he wasn’t quite sure yet if he required their services. New friends was something Papyrus sorely needed in a new town, new life situation. Sans lived an hour and a half away, which he had never quite processed until just them. He ripped off one of the tabs, folding it in half and putting it in the pocket of his jeans. He’d have to text this person later, maybe he could invite them to lunch! Would that give the wrong idea…? Oh dear.

Papyrus was interrupted from his thoughts by the grumble of an engine, and looked up to see that the bus that was meant to stop here was pulling up around the corner. Which meant that it was probably time to go. Toby got a bit too excited around new people. He picked himself up on the bench, and tugged on the leash to catch Toby’s attention. The dog snorted, shaking his head as he accidentally inhaled a dandelion. He chuffed at it, and then bounced up to his feet, wagging his curly tail and panting at Papyrus.

Usually, Toby would lead the way back home during their walks. But today Papyrus was the one who led, considering this was a new area, a route Toby wasn’t quite familiar with yet. He jogged along at Papyrus’s side at a leisurely pace, pausing every so often to sniff at the grass or investigate a very intriguing lamp post. Papyrus wasn’t against taking his sweet time, this was as much of an adventure for him as it was for his dog. It gave him an excuse to explore the neighborhood he now called home, make a route in his head of the quickest way to catch the campus bus, and the best route to take Toby out on. He hummed a little tune to himself as he walked along, it was hard to get lost when his house wasn’t hard to spot. The bright pink Victorian was a sharp contrast amongst the newer upscale apartments. It was visible before he even turned the corner to his street. As he approached the driveway, he reached into his jacket to find his keys.

This ended up being a mistake.

As soon as Papyrus let up on the leash a little bit, Toby bolted forward, nearly pulling Papyrus to the ground in his mad dash. He was barking up a storm, nails scraping at the sidewalk as he tried to get to the house. Papyrus gasped as he stumbled, immediately forgetting about the keys to grip the leash with both hands instead. He yanked backwards hard, trying to get Toby to let up. God he hoped he wasn’t going to have to drag Toby away from another walker, or god forbid, another dog. But, no, Toby was solely fixated on the house. Or, more specifically, the upstairs window of the house.

It didn’t take very long for Papyrus to see it as well, freezing in his tracks and forgetting about the dog for a moment. He stared at the window with his jaw dropped and eyes wide. It was the window that overlooked the bench in the study, and sitting on that bench was the faint impression of a figure. A human figure. Their details were hard to make out, being too faded and too far away to make out more than just some general shapes. They were lounging very leisurely, shoulders pressed against one wall of the bench and feet propped up against the other. Looked to be dressed in a fur coat, or something similar, and balancing something long and skinny in their fingertips. Pink mist swirled out from the end of it.

Most importantly though, their head was turned in Papyrus’s direction.

Their facial features were a lost cause to make out, too blurred to see more than the faint impressions of a large nose and a singular eye. But, no mistake, he was being stared at by this...thing. The thin line that Papyrus assumed had to be a mouth suddenly stretched wide into a grin, and pale white fingers - familiar looking fingers - waggled to Papyrus in a wave. Dumbstruck, Papyrus didn’t know what to do besides give a half-hearted wave back. The figure’s hand went to cover it’s mouth, shoulders shaking like it was giggling. It’s stick disappeared, and it swung it’s legs over the side so it could stand up, walking out into the center of the study. Or...it should have, anyway. But as soon as it was out of the windowsill, it vanished into thin air. 

Papyrus was snapped back to reality by Toby still yapping at his foot, even after the figure was gone. He was trying to get Papyrus to move, tongue sticking out and making noises between barking and desperate whines. If Papy just got closer to the fence, then he could jump it! Then he could get the thingie in the window! 

Papyrus reached down and gripped the handle of his harness, lifting the dog off the ground and tucking him under his arm like a football. Toby’s barking ceased as he was picked up. He hung limply from Papyrus’s grasp, tail wagging hard enough to repeatedly thump against his back. He’d completely forgotten about what he’d just seen, and now was just happy he was being held. 

Even though Toby’s memory was short term, Papyrus couldn’t get over what he’d just seen. He...had seen that, right? It was much too specific to be a delusion, and he was wide awake! Right…? He considered for a moment to pinch himself, but his hands weren’t free enough to do it. Instead he just went through the gate and sat Toby back down in the surprisingly well maintained grass, slipping off his harness. He decided to just let the dog run around the yard for now and get the rest of his energy out. Besides, Papyrus had something he needed to do, and it’d be best if Toby didn’t interrupt him while he was doing it.

“I’ll be back in a minute, okay?” Papyrus reassured him, patting the dog on the back. Toby shook out his fur where it had been slicked down by the harness, and gave a small chuff. Papyrus would’ve liked to believe that meant yes in doggy-speak. 

Papyrus walked back into the house, standing in the foyer and staring up the staircase at the darkened floor above. It _was_ really dark up there, even in the daytime… He had the sense that he wasn’t just staring into the darkness, but that something was there. Something that was staring back at him. He shivered, and a voice in the back of his head that wasn’t his whispered that it was rude to stare. He felt as if his body was moving outside of his control as he turned away from it and walked into the kitchen. He still needed to finish cleaning up that mess, didn’t he remember? Oh, isn’t that nice, the knife had been removed from the counter for him, and now laid on it’s side; almost delicately placed. But the blood still remained. Either way, wasn’t that nice of him to fix it? He could’ve just left it in there for Papyrus to take care of on his own, but no, he’d gone out of his way to-

What…

Was he talking about?

Papyrus blinked, bonking the heel of his palm into his temple. What had _that_ been? Who? Where did that thought process come from? 

He tilted his head up to the roof, as if his answers would be found there. Of course, they weren’t, there was nothing to be found beyond the faded old wall paper and the sense of unease deep in the pit of his belly. But he had come inside for a reason, and he wasn’t about to back out now. 

“Uhm...Hello? Mr. Ghost?” Papyrus asked hesitantly. It sounded even more crazy when he said it aloud, but he was starting to form a conclusion. He wasn’t sure why the possibility hadn’t crossed his mind earlier. The house was over a hundred years old, Asgore had briefly mentioned a “rumor”, seeing things in the dead of night. It just made too much sense.

Still, it felt weird to be talking to something like a ghost as if it were his roommate that he was having a disagreement with. Maybe he was a bit too casual about this, in all the shows he’d seen they always had this high tech equipment to talk to spirits. Though, he did get another idea as he looked around at the very pink decor of his home. “Or uh...Miss Ghost?”

A loud clatter, and Papyrus jumped. His knife block had been knocked onto it’s side, and it may have been a coincidence, but the giant butcher’s knife was the only one to fall out of it’s sheath. 

“Ah, I’m sorry! _Mr._ Ghost!” Papyrus corrected, and a hostility he hadn’t realized was there left the air. “I’m very sorry for the mistake! But I just wanted to ask if you could please not attack my brother? I am unsure what he did to make you so upset, but I would really appreciate it if he did not get hurt.”

Silence.

That...was to be expected. Papyrus wasn’t sure why he thought he could just sit down and have a heart-to-heart with a vengeful spirit. He needed a plan B, and as he thought, he got an idea of where to get that from.

“Well, thank you for your time!” Papyrus called to close the ‘talk’, in the loosest sense of the word. Because, no matter who or what he was talking to, he didn’t want to be rude. He turned to let Toby in from outside, and slipped his hand into the pockets of his jeans. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Flops* idk why this took me such a long time to finish i had the rough finished for a w h i le but HERE WE ARE
> 
> Obligatory I HC undyne as an amputee and there's no real deeper meaning or story to it besides i like disabled headcanons

Papyrus decided to sit outside on the porch while he made his phone call. It was a nice day today, for one thing. But, for another, he thought that it was likely in his best interest to keep his conversations away from any...eavesdropping…

He dialed the number into his phone quickly and leaned back on the porch bench, shoving the slip of paper back into his pocket. He hummed along with the dial tone as it rang, tapping his boots against the squeaky wood. It was taking a long time for someone to pick up, for a moment Papyrus worried that they weren’t near their phone.

“Please don’t be a scam call...” But eventually someone did, a high nasally voice answering the other end of the line. She sounded kind of tired, like she had just been woken up. Which would explain the extended wait time, at least.

“Hi!” Papyrus chimed back, a bit more chipper than his conversation partner. “Is this Alphys?”

“Uh- yea!” The voice answered, sounding a little less exhausted this time. “Uhm, are you calling f-from the flyer or…?”

“That I am!” Papyrus reassured her. “It was the flyer at the bus stop, to be specific!”

“W-we, uh...h-have a lot of flyers at bus stops…” Alphys cleared her throat, and there was some sounds of shifting in the background. She switched to a customer service voice before responding again, “So, uh, what can I do you for!” 

“Well, I think my house may be haunted!”

“Right, well. You called the right people.” Alphys continued, fake upbeat as ever. There was a clicking noise that may have been a pen. “C-could you describe wh-what’s been going on? S-slamming doors, n-noises…?”

“Well, there’s been a few things!” Papyrus continued on, looking out into the yard. Toby was sniffing at a random patch of grass, not a care in the world. Which was a good sign, because it meant he wasn’t seeing things in the window anymore. “It started with my dog barking at thin air, I believe.”

“Uh-huh, th-that’s pretty common…” Alphys mumbled, the sounds of scribbling coming from her end.

“And, last night, when I went to bed. I saw someone staring at me from the hallway!”

“O-Oh an apparition? T-that’s uncommon.” Alphys paused for a minute, “Uh - we ca-can talk about that more later. Uhm, anything else?”

“Yes, just one more thing! Just today, my brother got stabbed!”

There was a long pause from Alphys, stuttering wordlessly for a few minutes before finding her voice again. “I-I’m sorry, did you say _stabbed?!_ Oh my god, is he okay?!”

“Well, it was more cutting than stabbing.” Papyrus admitted, “But, I am certain Mr.Ghost was aiming for stabbing. My brother is fine, to answer your question! He went to the hospital and got stitches, thank you for your concern!”

“I- god?” Alphys sounded at a loss for words. “That’s.- new. Uhm.” She stopped to regain her composure, “I-I mean we can d-definitely c-come and check it out. Uh, w-we can’t do exorcisms anymore. Not since the lawsuit. But we could uh...try to c-communicate? B-burn some sage, maybe? Uhm, can I g-get your address?”

“That is alright! I just wished for the opinion of an expert in the field of hauntings! My address is 22 Waterfall Way-”

Before Papyrus could give his full address, city and zipcode included (even though Ms.Alphys likely didn’t need it, she lived in the same town, presumably.), the woman on the other end of the line let out a high, squeaky gasp. Papyrus flinched as he heard what was likely the phone being dropped to the floor as Alphys’s excited screaming got fainter. There was some loud conversation too far away for Papyrus to make out words, and then another woman’s voice joined the mix of excited screaming. And then the - sound of something metal dropping to the floor. Maybe a pan? Oh dear - that was definitely a smoke alarm.

“Hi! Sorry!” Soon enough, Alphys’s voice returned to the phone line. Talking louder so she could be heard over the alarm going off in the background. “C-can we meet somewhere? What’s your name again?”

* * *

They had agreed to meet later that day, at a diner that was a mile away from Papyrus’s house. It was a little bit of a trip for Paps, considering he didn’t have a car (yet, at least, if Sans’s claims were true.) and he couldn’t justify spending the two dollar bus fair for a mile trip. So, walking it was. Which wasn’t the worst it could’ve been, Papyrus considered himself to be rather athletic! 

Papyrus found that he was the first one to arrive at the diner, there being no sight of a woman matching the description Alphys had given over the phone. Neither of herself or the girlfriend she mentioned was tagging along. So he decided to take his seat and get comfortable as he waited, maybe peruse the menu in the meantime. He wasn’t too worried about being missed, he thought the description of himself he had given of a tall, skinny black boy in cherry red snowboots who was “ruggedly handsome” had been more than enough to go off of. And, it had been! If the fact that he felt a tap on his shoulder not long after hearing the jingling bell of the door had anything to say about it. Well...there was also the fact that, besides the rather hairy ginger man staffing the counter, he was the only other living soul in this diner.

Papyrus looked up from his menu, being greeted with the sight of a small, chubby woman carrying an overstuffed bookbag over her shoulder. She gave him a nervous grin, tapping her fingers together to keep her hands busy. 

“U-uh, hi! Are-are you Papyrus?”

“I am!” Papyrus slapped the menu down on the table to sit up straight. “Are you Alphys?”

“Uh, yea!” Alphys replied back, the slightest twinge of anxiety still in her tone. “A-and this is my g-girlfriend I-I mentioned, Undyne.”

Undyne, as she had been introduced, was a tall Polynesian woman with wild red hair loosely tied back in a ponytail. She was missing an eye and an arm, on the opposite sides of her body, and wore an eyepatch to cover up at least one of those injuries. For the stub of her arm the only thing she “wore” over it was a tattoo that gave the end of it the grinning face of a shark, which wasn’t her only tattoo - far from it, in fact. But Papyrus quickly decided shark arm was his favorite, and didn’t care to commit the rest to memory. She flashed him a grin and nodded in greeting, waiting for Alphys to slide into the booth before her. 

And, speaking of Alphys. She was very small and fat, quite possibly she didn’t even reach a height of five feet. Her spiky blond hair was pushed back with a black polka-dotted headband, and didn’t look super well maintained other than that. Her teeth didn’t entirely fit in her mouth and lenses of her glasses were so thick they didn’t fit entirely in the frame, and were smudged to hell to boot. For a moment Papyrus wondered how much they were actually helping her see at that point. But before he could think about it too long, Alphys had gotten comfortable, and dropped her bag on the table with a loud thunk. 

“S-so lets g-get down to business.” Alphys said with a slight huff, those notebooks weighed more than one might think.

“To defeat! The Huns!” Undyne sang after her, flashing a wide grin at her own joke as she took her own seat.

Alphys didn’t acknowledge her joke, too busy unpacking the bag she had brought. Accordion folders, binders with color coded tabs, well worn notebooks and a pack of highlighters were all spread out upon the table. Papyrus had to pull his arms closer to his chest to give her more room to lay all of her things out. Undyne seemed to be used to this, as she leaned back from the tabletop entirely, arm stub slung over the back of the booth chair and holding the menu up close to her face. 

Alphys took a while to sort things exactly how she wanted, and once she was done, she picked up one of the notepads and uncapped a pen she had stuffed into the pocket of her hoodie. She turned to Papyrus with a pointed look, and he felt like he was being interviewed.

“Y-you live in the Waterfall house.” She said in a tone that was very factual.

“I guess I do!” Papyrus responded with enthusiasm. He tried to match the air of professionalism that Alphys was giving off by sitting up straight and folding his hands close to his chest. “I did not realize it had a name to it! I have just been calling it “my house”. Or, I suppose it would be more accurate to call it my landlord’s house.”

Alphys’s eyes lit up like she’d met a celebrity. It was clear she was trying very hard to contain herself and remain business-like. She tried to get out the majority of her energy by tapping her pen rapidly against her notepad.

“Nah, not really. We just call it that for our records. Bit less of a mouthful than “that creepy pink Victorian house on Waterfall”, yanno?” Undyne piped in with, peeping up from the menu for a minute. “Hey, babe, you want a smoothie or a milkshake?”

“Your records?” Papyrus asked, tilting his head to one side.

“Uh- smoothie.” Alphys answered after thinking for a minute. “Uh- yea! Records. A-all of this stuff is about the Waterfall house.” She gestured to the charcuterie board of research materials scattered across the table. “I-it’s kind of a passion project of-of ours. It's uh- why we-we started doing this whole gh-ghost hunting thing, ac-actually! It-it’s one of the mouse haun-haunted places in th-this county.”

“It...is?” Papyrus wondered why he’d never heard of it if that was the case. He hadn’t moved that far from home to be here, after all.

“Well, un-unofficially.” Alphys explained further, sensing his confusion. She continued to tap her pen against her notebook, stalling to find words. “Th-the thing is th-that n-not a lot of of-official reports or-or research has-has been done into th-the place. B-but e-everyone knows it-it’s haunted. Which, is uh! W-why we were s-so excited when you called! T-the most f-first hand accounts we’ve ever go-gotten was from m-maintenance workers - b-but you actually live there!”

Alphys’s excitement over the matter was infectious, Papyrus was getting just about as amped up about investigating his house as she was. Most haunted place in the county, wowie! That was quite the descriptor! Even though he did have to live there.

Details, details.

Undyne had flagged down the curly-headed ginger as Alphys talked, reciting an order off to him that Papyrus didn’t pay much attention to. The waiter looked at him with a raised eyebrow, silently questioning his own order. Papyrus shook his head, indicating he didn’t want anything just yet. The waiter nodded and scribbled something down on his notepad before leaving the table to their own business, disappearing through the swinging kitchen doors. Alphys had stayed quiet through the whole event, and only after he left did she finally release the breath she’d been holding. Her shoulders relaxed as she went to pick up her pen again.

“U-uhm. Sorry. I’m a little uh,” Alphys gave a nervous laugh, scratching at her cheek. “E-embarrassed about g-going on about my interests in p-public. Uhm...anyways. S-so uh! I wanted t-to start off with the apparition y-you saw?”

“Certainly!” Papyrus sat up straight, folding his hands on the table like a proper business associate. “What would you like to know?”

“Well, I-I wanted t-to know about what it looked like,” Alphys clarified, flipping through her notepad to find something in specific. “W-we do have some re-reports on apparitions from t-this haunting in-in specific but yours sounded pretty uh - d-different from what we’ve heard b-before. Which is - k-kind of a big deal when it comes to-to gh-ghosts. I-if you don’t know, th-they tend to follow a set pattern, usually acting o-out things they did in life. Uh, I ha-have it written down here you saw it in the hall-hallway?”

“Yes, that’s correct!” Papyrus bobbed his head stiffly, “I was in my bedroom, about to go to sleep, when I saw fingers gripping on the edge of the doorframe!”

“Wh-what did they look like, the fingers?” Alphys pressed.

“Very pale, almost white.” Papyrus mused, “I didn’t commit a lot of it to memory, to be honest with you. I’m very sorry!”

“It-it’s okay! It-it doesn’t have to be perfect. Uh, an-anything else…?”

“Yes, there is else! I also saw an eye. And, it was pink! Which I found rather striking. I’ve never heard of someone with pink eyes before...well, unless they’re sick!”

Undyne snorted, “Maybe she died wearing colored contacts.”

Papyrus raised a brow at that statement, a bit surprised, “She? But the ghost is a boy!”

The comment caused both women to pause in what they were doing. Undyne lowering her menu, Alphys looking up from her notetaking, both to look at Papyrus’s face with wide-eyed bewilderment. As if he’d just spoken some ancient truth into existence.

“Hhhhoww...d-do you know that…?” Alphys asked slowly.

“Well, he told me!”

Alphys gasped loud, and Undyne - much like what Papyrus had heard over the phone earlier - screamed loudly. She started chanting “ _WRITE THAT DOWN WRITE THAT DOWN-_ ” as Alphys’s hand moved as fast as humanly possible to scribble on her notepad. The excitement was sliced down prematurely with a deep voice clearing its throat, Undyne shutting her trap to look towards the source. She was greeted with what was quite possibly the sternest, dadly-est stare she’d ever received in her life from the ginger waiter, who was looking pointedly at the table over the rim of his glasses. Oops.

“Uh, sorry, Grillbs!” Undyne called out to him, “I’ll tip ya’ extra!”

“Grillbs” as Undyne had called him, sighed through his nose and shook his head. But he didn’t raise much else fuss after that, going back to cleaning an already spotless bar counter. Apparently the two were regulars, or else Papyrus was sure they would’ve gotten more than a stern glare.

Alphys fanned her face with both hands, trying to calm down. “Sorry, sorry! It-it’s just that - oh my god h-he - _directly communicated with you?!_ A-are you an esper, by-by any chance?”

“Hmm...no! I think I would know if I was a Pokemon!”

Undyne let out a barking laugh, but Papyrus wasn’t sure what was so funny.

Alphys picked up her notepad again, finally having calmed down, and frowned at the barely-legible chicken scratch she had scrawled down in her frenzied hurry. She puffed out her cheeks in a pout, ripping out that page and setting it aside so she could re-write the information on the next one in neater handwriting. “T-the news that we kn-know for sure that he’s a boy is k-kind of huge. Ev-everyone has always thought that the ghost is-is a girl.”

“Why’s that?” Papyrus had dropped his businessly stance, as he kind of assumed he no longer needed to keep it up. Screaming wasn’t exactly business-like, after all. Instead he folded his arms more relaxed on the table and leaned forward to look at what Alphys was doing.

“Mostly the pink house.” Undyne remarked, but seemed too busy flipping through the little dessert pamphlet on the table to contribute to the conversation much at the moment. Their main orders hadn’t even arrived yet...

“Uhm, ad-admittedly yes.” Alphys said, almost embarrassed. “W-which is- really cl-close minded but. I-I mean the house is, like-like a hundred years old. People w-weren’t exactly…”progressive” in-in the early 1900s. But, uh, th-there was also the uh, apparition!”

Alphys popped open one of the accordion folders, leafing through it for something in specific. “H-he’s usually reported as wear-wearing fur and a cloche hat. Which uh - fir-first off! Gives us a little bit of a time per-period? Those were pop-popular in the 2-20s. And uh...m-mostly...worn by women…So we thought…?”

“I suppose that logic does track!” Papyrus agreed, bobbing his head once more. “But Mr.Ghostie was very adamant about letting me know he was - is - a boy!”

“Uh...c-can I ask exactly how he talked to you…? Was it ver-verbal or…?”  
  


“Oh! He threatened me with a knife when I called him Miss!” Papyrus stated as if it was the most casual thing in the world to get threatened by ghost knives.

Undyne snorted again, “Jesus, didn’t know ghosts could be stab-happy. Hey babe, didn’t you say somethin’ about his brother gettin’ stabbed?”

“That is correct!” Papyrus answered before Alphys could. “Though, as I further clarified, it was more of a cut than a stab!”

“Th-that’s uh, n-not actually too unusual know-knowing this particular sp-spirit.” Alphys pushed her glasses up to her forehead to rub at the bridge of her nose. “Be-before I-I knew what y-you were talking about I-I thought it was weird but - uh. Th-there’s actually a lot of st-stories of people getting at-attacked in that house. Most-mostly people who’ve tried to-to do remodeling? It’s. Uhm. T-too much to get into right-right now.”

She finally slipped a laminated photograph out of her accordion folder, setting it to the side for now as she kept talking. “Th-the thing is that we...a-actually have almost noth-nothing to go off of for who ex-exactly this guy was in-in life. It’s uh-uhm-uh-”

Sensing that Alphys was starting to lose her train of thought, becoming frazzled trying to multitask and keep multiple factoids in her head at once while simultaneously noting down new information; Undyne was here to save her girlfriend’s scrambled nerves! She sat down the dessert menu and leaned her elbow against the table to finish giving Papyrus the rundown. 

“So basically the deal is that nobody knows nothing about the house’s history. It ain’t public record or anything. And anyone who may’ve had any of that kinda info either won’t give it up or is dead.” She explained, waving her hand as she talked. “All we really know is that it’s been empty for a long while, ‘til Asgore bought it up at an estate sale like thirty years ago?”

“Oh!” Papyrus’s eyes lit up hearing a name he was familiar with. “You also know Asgore?”

“Yea, he’s our landlord too.” Undyne looked up when she heard another deep-voiced throat clear, seeing Grillby had come back around with their drinks finally. He sat down two milkshakes and one smoothie on the table, “Fuck yea! Thanks, man!”

Grillby just nodded before leaving them to their table again. Yep, they were definitely regulars. That kind of casual interaction didn’t happen with perfect strangers.

“Anyway, Asgore’s a sweet guy. But still a landlord.” Undyne bounced her straw against the table to pop off the paper wrapping before stuffing it into her drink. “Oh, that one’s yours by the way. Didn’t ask but who doesn’t like chocolate, right?”

“Oh, thank you! You didn’t have to do that.” Papyrus took the other glass and a straw for himself. 

“Don’t mention it.” Undyne grinned again, and didn’t hesitate to start sipping on her own drink, as she’d bought enough time for Alphys to get herself together. The smaller girl re-entered the conversation by laying a newspaper clipping out on the table, smoothing it out delicately with her fingers. 

It was an ad, one that looked to be pretty old. It featured black and white photographs showcasing the inside of a house, very obviously Papyrus’s. Even in black and white the polka-dotted wallpaper was unmistakable. Bold letters at the top listed the place as “an antique home with a modern charm!”, and listed the date for an auction.

“T-this was the original ad for-for the sale,” Alphys explained, “Fr-from 1987, wh-which is when the only previous owner we ha-have on record died.”

Papyrus was very careful as he picked up the yellowed slip of paper to examine it closer, afraid it would crumble if he so much as breathed on it too hard. “I see! Is it possible that this person is the one who is haunting the house?”

“Uh, h-highly unlikely.” Alphys answered, shaking her head. “We-we searched out th-their obituary, and...t-too many things didn’t match up.”

“Some guy named Napsta-something.” Undyne butted in with, “Can’t remember it exactly, it was something really long and weird soundin’. European, maybe?”

Alphys shrugged.

“Complete nobody, though. Didn’ even die in this state, they were a sheep farmer in Nebraska or some ass-nowhere place like that. Googlin’ their name didn’t really bring up much either, complete dead end. Far as we know this random sheep farmer had the deed to a house thousands of miles away from ‘em and didn’ even care to write the thing into their will. Bonkers, huh?”

“That is rather strange…” Papyrus agreed, speaking slowly and rubbing at his chin.

“G-getting back to it though. Th-this is the clearest photo we have of-of the ghost.” Alphys held her hand out for Papyrus to give the clipping back, which he did. She slipped it back into the folds of her organizer and picked up the laminated photograph she had sat aside earlier. She held it out to Papyrus so he could see. He was less afraid about holding this one, as it looked more recent and had some sort of protection on it. He did, though, briefly wonder why this got the lamination treatment and not the newspaper clip. Which he felt needed it more sorely than this photo did. 

Papyrus took a closer examination of it, trying to make out what he was supposed to be looking at. It was a photo of the top floor’s window, taken from what must’ve been across the street judging by the distance. There was the faintest impression of a familiar outline laying on the bench in the window, and though it was hard to see, he didn’t think the face was looking towards the outside this time around, instead staring at the wall. Same as before, it looked like it was dressed in fur and holding an ambiguous long skinny item in it’s hand.

“I’ve seen this!” Papyrus said, setting the picture down on the table. “I was walking my dog and saw the same “apparition” upon arriving home. Though, he was looking at me, not the wall.”

“Th-that’s not too unusual.” Alphys laced her fingers together on the table. “Th-the figure sitting in the window is-is one of the most common sightnings. Some-sometimes he’s looking out, sometimes he’s not. W-we think that’s just where he likes to hang out…?”

That made sense! He guessed that if he was stuck in a singular house for the entirety of his afterlife that he would be fond of looking out windows as well, it was something that would provide at least something different once in a while. He pondered if ghosts would appreciate having something softer to sit on than bare hardwood, and if he would have to go shopping for bedding sometime soon. Hm...

Alphys retrieved the photo from him once he was done looking at it, placing it back within her folder. She pulled the elastic band shut on it and sat it to the side, finally reaching out to take that smoothie Undyne had ordered. It was slightly melted by this point, but she didn’t seem to mind too much. She didn’t drink it just yet, though, instead nervously stirred the straw around for a minute, gaze not lifting up from the table.

“Uhm...t-there was another question we-we, uh, wanted to-to ask you..”

“Mmyess?”

Alphys continued to avoid eye contact, “W-well, sin-since this is a, uh, a uh...pas-passion project of our-ours. We were uh, we were uh…” Her cheeks tinted pink suddenly, and her hand flew up to cover her face in an attempt to hide it. “G-god this is pr-probably s-so weird to ask of s-someone I-I just met but uh - w-we were wondering if-if you, uh.. _Wouldletusdoalongtermprojectonyourhouse_?”

“We’d pay you!” Undyne butted in with, “I mean. Not in money, we’re dirt fuckin’ poor. But we could pay you in other stuff! Like...uh…” She stopped short. Actually, she wasn’t sure what things of value she had to offer. “My nana’s got a mean spaghetti recipe I could teach ya’!”

“Or-or we could actually pay you.” Alphys stammered, tapping her nails on the table repeatedly. She had looked up from it finally, and stared at Papyrus with a pleading glance. “Just, uh, n-not a lot. She’s right, w-we are poor…B-but we-we’ve been r-really interested in this place for a-a long time and-and I know it’s a lot t-to ask to raid a st-stranger’s house b-but we would really appreciate it and-and-”

“I would be very interested in learning that recipe!” Papyrus piped up with finally, now that his mouth wasn’t full of ice cream. Which was the only reason he hadn’t said anything to their prior begging. “I have no interest in taking money from you. I’d be honored to help with your project by allowing you into my home! It is, of course, why I called you!”

Alphys’s eyes lit up again, barely containing her excited squeak. “We-we can be by your place as early as t-tonight! Or-or even, uh, sooner than that! Li-like this afternoon!” She rattled off at about a mile a minute as she started picking up the things she’d brought with her, stuffing them back into her bookbag. She would’ve probably gotten them all to fig better if she wasn’t rushing herself like she was, the way things were going it looked like it was going to rip. “We-we’d just have to sw-swing by our apartment to-to grab our gear and-and-”

Alphys looked like she was ready to bolt to the door right now. She had all of her notebooks and folders stuffed into her bag (poorly or not), and decided to stuff her markers and pens in the pockets of her hoodie instead of trying to figure out how to fit them into her bag again. She was stopped in her tracks when Undyne didn’t match her enthusiasm, and it just so happened Undnye was the only thing keeping her trapped in the booth. The drawbacks of taking the window seat...

“Babe, chill, we just got here.” Undyne said, though she did give an amused little smirk at Alphys’s excitement.

Alphys opened her mouth to protest, but all that came out was wordless stuttering. And as a bonus, she was interrupted shortly after by a stack of pancakes being sat down on the table, along with an extra plate. When had Undyne ordered food? She had been under the assumption she’d just ordered drinks.

Alphys huffed, letting her heavy bookbag drop to the floor with a thud. She dragged the empty plate towards herself, taking a few pancakes from the stack. “O-okay...food first…”

* * *

Alphys and Undyne showed up at Papyrus’s house about an hour after they’d left the diner. They hadn’t stayed at the diner for very long, either, considering Alphys had been in a real rush to leave. Near choking herself trying to wolf down her pancakes as fast as humanly possible while Undyne and Papyrus struck up a conversation. He had found he got along with Undyne very well, and was excited that he was likely going to be seeing the two of them very often for the foreseeable future!

When Papyrus had gotten home, he had only been upstairs for long enough to change out of his heavy winter clothes. As he turned to go back down the stairs, he paused at the top of the steps for a moment to give a wave to the window. And, this time, he left all the doors upstairs open. There was no indication his gesture was appreciated, or even seen, but he didn’t mind if he had gone ignored. 

Toby had been let out into the backyard prior to the pair coming over, so they wouldn’t be interrupted. It wasn’t that he was bad with strangers; far from it, in fact! He loved people! But therein lied the actual problem; in that an overly friendly dog might be a bit too distracting for what they were doing. And, on the plus side, he actually wasn’t entirely sure on Mr.Ghost’s opinions on dogs yet. He hoped he liked dogs. After all, who didn’t!

Other than that, Papyrus had been waiting in the living room ever since he had gotten home. That way, he was able to get to the door immediately once he - ah! There it was! When there was a light knock at the door, Papyrus jumped to his feet as fast as he could. He didn’t even bother to check to make sure it really was Alphys before throwing it open. Which, in turn, actually managed to startle her slightly with how fast it was. She flinched with a light gasp and nearly topped over to the ground.

“Hello! Welcome!” He called, moving out of the way to let the two of them inside.

“Uh- hi-” Alphys said once she’d regained composure. She didn’t hesitate to make her way inside, struggling under the weight of a hiking backpack completely packed to the brim with stuff. Even complete with a sleeping bag strapped to the bottom of it! Goodness, she really was prepared! 

She wheezed in relief as she let it drop off her back and to the floor. The crash resulting from the impact being so loud that it even caused the chandelier to sway. She took a moment to sit down on it, rubbing the small of her back and panting. While she was doing it, Undyne trailed in behind her. She’d packed much lighter than her partner, only having a blue duffel bag slung over her shoulder. Papyrus wondered why she hadn’t offered to help, as he had assumed she was the stronger of the couple. But considering how Alphys had been clinging to the straps for dear life, he guessed it must’ve been a two-handed job…?

Undyne sat down her own duffel bag, less forcefully than Alphys had dropped hers, and took a moment to look around at the interior of the house. “Jesus”, she snorted, “Yanno, not sure why I expected different.”

“Un-Undyne!” Alphys snapped, looking up suddenly. “Y-you know y-you have to be-be respectful!”

She folded her hands as if she was praying, and cast her gaze up to the rafters. “D-don’t listen t-to her! Yo-your decorating is-is very beautiful, s-sir!”

Alphys continued to stare at the roof for some time, eyes scanning for anything out of the ordinary. Anything that could’ve indicated a response. But there wasn’t anything amiss, besides, perhaps, the chandelier that continued to swing lightly from side to side. But even that was starting to die down. Before she lowered her head back down, though, she did catch a glimpse of something at the top of the stairs. She turned her head to get a better look at it - trying to verify if what she was seeing was really there or a product of an overactive, hopeful, imagination. But whatever she had seen was gone.

Alphys shook her head, finally turning away from staring at the sky and going back to her bag. She wrapped both hands onto the top handle of it and walked backwards to drag it into the living room. Papyrus would’ve offered to help - but he wasn’t sure what kind of sensitive equipment that bag might’ve contained.

“Goodness!” Papyrus remarked, closing the door behind them before following the two into the living room. “That’s quite a large pack! What all do you have there?”

“O-oh, just some essentials.” Alphys said, sitting on the couch and pulling the bag up to her knees. She zipped open the top flap and started taking some things out of it, setting it up on the coffee table. “Camera, camera accessories, m-my laptop, EMF reader, s-some overnight stuff just in c-case, sp-spirit box, Geiger counter…”

“And _I_ brought snacks!” Undyne chimed in, setting down her less sizable load on the kitchen counter. “And a Luigi board!”

Alphys gave a small gigglesnort from her place in the living room.

“Oh no! How inhospitable of me!” Papyrus gasped, “I should have prepared snacks for you! My deepest apologies, I haven’t really had the time to go grocery shopping yet!”

“Ay, don’t sweat it, man.” Undyne laughed, clapping him on the back as she walked past him. “Snacks is a part of the ghost hunter’s standards!”

“It-it’s true!” Alphys said as she continued to pull out complex looking electronics from her bag and set them on the coffee table. She had taken out her laptop while Papyrus wasn’t looking, and was letting it boot up while she fiddled with what looked like a hand-held radio. “W-we do late night stakeouts a-a lot. Gh-ghosts are usually most ac-active around midnight t-to 4am. So, uh...w-we miss dinner a lot.”

“Oh dear! I should make you dinner one night, then!” Papyrus said, swinging around to the living room himself. 

“Oh- uh, t-thanks but you don’t have t-to do that.” Alphys said, smiling nervously. She still felt a bit weird about taking over someone’s house like this. The computer chimed a start-up noise at her, distracting her from fiddling with the little radio. She muttered something to herself, dipping back into her bag again to search out a USB hub.

“Well, I’d at least like to order you takeout! Do you think you will need to do a stakeout tonight?” Papyrus asked, leaning forward to watch Alphys work. It was all quite fascinating to him! “I am not against it! I have plenty of guest rooms! But, none with mattresses, unfortunately. But I did notice you brought sleeping bags with you!”

“Uh- good question.” Was all Alphys answered with, squinting as she focused on plugging in her various bits and bobs into the computer. “W-we aren’t sure yet, honestly. B-but we d-do know this is a very active h-haunting. So...ho-hopefully not?”

She finally seemed to be satisfied with her computer setup, leaning away from it to relax against the back of the couch. Her eyes remained glued to the screen, glancing between the various little boxes to make sure everything was working as they should. Audio recorder, webcam turned on, graphs with readouts of the room’s temperature and whatnot displayed on the screen. She was also checking in the slight hope that it had picked some abnormality up already - but no such luck. Ah well, the night had just begun.

“Uhm. Okay, so. Uh, Papyrus.” She turned away from the screen to look at the boy who had sat on the couch adjacent from her. “I-I’ll try and-and let you know wh-what we’re doing wh-while we’re doing it. O-okay?”

“Sounds good!” Papyrus nodded, folding his hands politely in his lap. Though he might not’ve shown it, he was very excited!

“S-so the first thing I-I want to do is t-try to talk to him.” Alphys explained, pulling her legs up so she could sit cross legged on the couch and get comfortable.

“Oh! Is that what you brought the Ouija board for?” Papyrus asked, remembering Undyne mentioning it. 

“Luigi board.” Speaking of Undyne, “He has a name!”

“Uhm - n-no. Th-that’s more of a back up.” Alphys said, “I-I don’t actually like working w-with the Luigi board personally. T-there’s j-ust uh.” She waved her hands as she tried to find words. “T-too much r-room for error. It-it’s impossible t-to p-pick out what was re-really said by th-the spirit and-and what’s human interf-ference. Uh...d-does that make sense?”

“I...think so?” Papyrus was admittedly lying. Truthfully he didn’t really understand all the nuances of ghosts, or even understand the purpose of a lot of this tech. He was going to be majoring in engineering, but even these kind of gadgets were far outside of the kinds of things he expected to be working with. He kind of wanted to know what the purpose of a Geiger counter was to paranormal investigation, but a part of him also wasn’t sure he wanted to know. Could ghosts be radio active…? Was his ghost radioactive? That sounded concerning.

“W-we still keep one around! J-just in case! B-but we’re going to be using this.” Alphys reached out to tap at the little radio she had been fiddling with before. “It-it’s called a spirit box, have you heard of-of it?”

“Hm…” Papyrus had to think for a minute, trying to recall all of the ghost-related media he’d ever consumed before. Admittedly, the list was rather short. It hadn’t ever been a genre he was very into. “I have not!”

Alphys nodded, “Th-that’s understandable. Well - uh! I-I won’t uh, b-bore you with th-the details. All y-you really need to know is it helps us t-talk to ghosts! So uh,” She turned to Undyne, who hadn’t taken her seat yet. “D-do you want to start or…?”

“You can go ‘head. I’ll hit the lights.” Undyne said, flipping the light switch before making her way towards the couch to sit next to her girlfriend. Once they were off, the room was nearly pitch black. The only lights coming from Alphys’s computer screen and the indicator lights on her various little do-dads. Papyrus had never realized how dark it could get in here.

Alphys folded her hands together in her lap and took a deep breath to steady herself. She tried to release all of her anxiety in a deep exhale, and looked towards the spirit box sat on the table. 

“U-uhm, hello?” She called out loudly, waiting for a response. Her eyes continuously flicked between the display on her laptop and the little box. Watching for any blips on the flat line of the audio indicator, a change in the little graphs in the corners. Anything at all. But there was nothing.

“Is th-there anyone here with us tonight?” She called again. A cliche, but it was a cliche for a reason. She waited a bit longer for a reply, seconds dripping by like molasses as she waited for something - anything. Any kind of a sign that she was being listened to.

Her sign came in the form of a static pop on the radio, which made Alphys nearly jump out of her skin. She had been so focused on watching the indicators on her computer screen she had almost forgotten the rest of the world around her. She rushed to scoop up the radio in her hands, nearly dropping it as she fumbled to turn up a dial on the side. “U-uh, sorry, c-can you repeat that? I-I missed it.”

The static pop came again, almost identical to how it sounded the first time. But now that Alphys had turned up the volume, it became clear that it was not simply a bit of static. It came out in a sing-songy lilt, though the performance was unfortunately lost under the heavy layers of interference. 

_“No~”_

Beside her, Undyne couldn’t help but snort and laugh. “Oh my _god!_ He thinks he’s funny!”

Alphys shushed her with a snippy “sh!” noise, scrambling as she reached forward for her laptop. She was frantically trying to make a new document on a word processor so she could transcribe all of this. Which was something that she probably should’ve set up beforehand instead of while the conversation was currently happening, but it had slipped her mind.

 _“I am funny.”_ the voice from the radio spoke again after some time. Actually, fairly close to the amount of time it had taken Alphys to finish up catching up on her transcript. Had he been waiting on her…? 

“U-uh, yea!” Alphys stammered, looking up from her computer and towards the radio again. She spoke towards the radio as if it was the “face” of the being she was speaking to, though it was hard to make eye contact with a little grey box. “I-I will admit th-that uhm - I-I haven’t met a lot of sar-sarcastic ghosts! B-but uhm - we-we were wondering if u-uh, w-we could uh, t-talk to you…?”

Again, there was a long gap of silence. Which started to panic Alphys a little bit, swallowing a lump in her throat. She turned back to her computer screen, deciding to once again spend the stretch of silence writing down what had all been said. And to once again double check the readouts from her computer, but nothing reported anything out of the ordinary. Not yet, at least. 

Alphys waited for a minute longer before speaking again, she never got a response to her first question. She decided to type her next question into her document prior to speaking it aloud, “U-uhm, wh-why don’t we start with your n-name?”

A sudden harsh noise came from the radio. It was loud, short, and wordless, but it was a response. And any sort of response got Alphys excited. Before she could ask her question again, though, the voice from the other end spoke.

_“W - it - to ya’?”_

It was broken and corrupted by static, but it was enough for Alphys to decipher what had been said. “Uh, wh-what’s it to me? Uh - I-I mean we just want to know so-so we can pr-properly address you!” 

Silence reigned once more, and Alphys was starting to worry that she wasn’t going to get anywhere. “Uh, we-we mean you no harm! Y-you’re among friends! We-we just want to learn about you and-and-”

But again, nothing.

“Dammit.” Alphys hissed, taking off her glasses to rub at the bridge of her nose. She was for sure they’d lost him. She’d never heard of a spirit finding the name question invasive! It was the most basic thing she could ask! But this guy seemed to not want to answer anything, not even that.

Undyne leaned forward on her knees to get a closer look at the computer screen, judging all the little boxes for herself. “Kinda moody, ain’t he?”

As soon as she said that, there was a loud crashing from upstairs. The sudden noise caused all three of them to flinch, and instictively they all looked towards the stars to see what had caused it. But of course, there was nothing on the stair - Toby had been let outside, after all, and all human occupants were currently accounted for; gathered around in the living room.

Well, all living human occupants, anyways.

The radio went off again, breaking attention away from the staircase for a moment. The voice was louder than ever before, and much much clearer.

**_“NO I’M NOT!”_ **

Alphys made a squeak, instinctively scooching backwards into Undyne’s side and balling her legs up to her chest. No matter how many times she did an investigation, she would never get used to the jump scares involved. Nope, no, no bueno. Alphys took some deep breaths to try and calm herself down, slumping against Undyne’s side to ground herself. Undyne lifted up her stump so Alphys could cuddle closer to her, glaring towards the staircase. She curled back her lip and balled her fist up, and she was...smirking? She stared at the stairs as if she was challenging them.

“Oh _NOW_ the punk wants to talk.” She remarked, tone half playful and half ‘bring it on ghost man’.

Alphys shook her head frantically, reaching out to tap at Undyne’s fist; trying to get her to stop before she escalated the situation further. She managed to keep her voice barely above a whisper, but her tone made it clear she wanted to shout. “ _I-I told you not t-to antagonize him!!”_

The two girls were so focused on the staircase that they hardly noticed when the floorboards near the kitchen started to squeak. Papyrus noticed though, and he turned his attention towards the source of the sound. His gaze moved between the panicked couple and the kitchen entryway. And then he cast a concerned glance to the fireplace when he caught the scent of smoke, coming from somewhere next to him. Not to mention the unknown weight that had made itself comfortable on the adjoining couch cushion. Papyrus shivered, wishing he had kept a blanket down here. He suddenly felt rather cold...

 _“Bored of-_ ” the radio spoke again, shutting the girls up for a moment. Undyne stopped her staring contest with the stairs, and Alphys scrambled to get back into a comfortable position to type. “ _-like you.”_

“U-Uh-” Alphys stammered, looking at her screens. Her eyes widened a little bit, _there was a new reading in the room-_ “Wh-what do you mean b-by that? Bored of what?”

 _“Al- same- questions._ ” The radio sputtered out.

“Oh! H-have you been investigated b-before?” She wondered why she’d never heard about them, if that was the case.

_“-you care?”_

That was quite the strange shift in tone, Alphys hadn’t expected a ghost to be asking for emotional support of all things. “Uh...of-of course I care!” She said, not entirely sure what else she was supposed to respond with.

 _“WHY d- care?”_ he snapped, putting extra emphasis on the ‘why’ so it wouldn’t be lost this time. Ah...well. That did make a bit more sense than a ghost being sentimental about someone caring about him. As sweet as that concept sounded.

“O-oh.” Alphys stammered, trying hard not to sound too disappointed. “I-I mean...I-I guess I just wan-wanted to know mo-more about you? Wh-who you were, how you died...If...if you even kn-know how you died?” she asked cautiously, “U-uh- some-sometimes people d-don’t realize they’re dead. An-and it’s why they get, uh, stuck-”

Papyrus felt the something next to him again, but this time it felt like it was shaking. And, if he strained his hearing very hard, he thought he could also hear the faintest hint of laughter.

 _“O- honey.”_ The radio spoke again, once more in that singing lilt. It popped, went out again, and then came back. “ _-know - dead.”_

“Oh, you do!” Alphys blinked, quickly writing that down. That was important information that definitely needed to be documented. The fact he knew he was dead was not unheard of, but it was something that varied from spirit to spirit. “S-so you uh-”

_“I watched them scrape my brains off the wall.”_

There were no interruptions this time, the sentence coming through clear as day. Purposeful and no-nonsense...and a little bit sad. Alphys went dead quiet, Undyne doing the same. They both stared at the radio in stunned silence.

“..So...you w-were murdered?” Alphys asked gently, as if she were consoling someone. Suddenly she felt very sad, and of course she always felt sad whenever a spirit would talk about how they died. But here she got the vibe that there was more to it that he wasn’t telling.

But, unfortunately, the box had stopped responding. Apparently not wanting to elaborate on it any longer.

Papyrus had finally decided to contribute to the conversation at this point with the very helpful addition of coughing as the scent of cigarette smoke around him got stronger. He waved his hand in front of his face and huffed, turning to look towards the ghost hunting duo on the couch.

“Er, I do apologize. But could I please ask you to not smoke?” Papyrus asked, trying to come off as non-confrontational as possible. 

Undyne gave him a quizzical look, which Alphys matched, briefly being distracted from her notetaking. And er...impromptu ghost therapy, it seemed.

“Uh - no offense, dude.” Undyne started, raising a brow. “But do ya’ see a cigarette anywhere around here?”

“Oh no! My apologies, but I didn’t mean you two!” Papyrus clarified, nodding his head towards the spirit box. “I was referring to him!”

Alphys gasped, going back to frantically typing away at her computer. Smoking ghosts! That was a new one! This was so exciting! And it also meant that he was still around, just not talking to them right now. She also scrambled to try to find the thermal meter in her pile of tools. She wanted to see if she could pick up a heat source from the apparent ghost cigarette. 

While she was doing that, Papyrus suddenly got the feeling he was being stared at. Not in a cruel way, or even a judgmental way. Just...in an observatory way. Papyrus tried to look back, but he wasn’t sure where he was supposed to be looking. After about a minute of this clumsy stare-off, he felt a sudden cool sensation on the tip of his nose. Like he’d been booped with a piece of ice. The sensation caused him to recoil, rubbing his nose where it felt strange. The radio popped to life again, and out came nothing more than a warm giggle. A very...human giggle. Then the audio cut completely, and the scent of cigarette smoke vanished along with it.

The weight he had felt beside him also was gone.

All this time, Alphys had been typing. Neither she nor Undyne seemed to have witnessed whatever had just happened to Papyrus. 

“I-I’ve never heard of ghosts b-being smokers!” Alphys squealed excitedly, “Well-well I mean, ob-obviously in life b-but. O-oh, you know wh-what I mean! Uh- I-I still didn’t get your n-name, though?”

Alphys turned her attention to the spirit box again, waiting very patiently on a response. But this time nothing came through, not even the stray pops of static it had been emitting before.

Undyne frowned, “Think he got sick of us, babe.”

Alphys sighed, shoulders slumping as she stared at the computer screen. The audio levels reader had gone completely flat, confirming her fears. “Shit.”

“Well!” Papyrus said, getting up to turn the lights back on. “That was quite the event!”

“Sure…” Alphys mumbled, clearly dejected as she went to start loading her stuff back into her giant backpack. “I-I just wish I h-had gotten a name…”

“Look at the bright side!” Undyne reassured her, grinning wide. “We learned some stuff! Like, that he’s a smoker! And he got shot in the head!”

“I-I guess…” Alphys huffed out a sigh through her nose. “B-but without a na-name, I-I can’t put those pieces t-together. Sm-smoker wh-who got shot in the head somewhere in-in the 20s d-doesn’t really narrow down a-a lot…”

“You are welcome to visit again, if you’d like!” Papyrus offered, “I had assumed this would be more than a one night event. Though, I must warn that my classes start up next week.”

“Y-yea, I assumed…” Alphys took off her glasses, rubbing the lenses on her shirt. “I-I mean I was just hoping to get m-more done tonight, is all…”

“That’s quite understandable! But, what can you do? I am sure Mr.Ghostie will open up more eventually!” Papyrus reassured her. “Are you two hungry? I have some leftover pizza, if you would like to stick around for a bit longer!”

* * *

The rest of the night went by rather uneventfully. Papyrus helped Alphys and Undyne load their ghost hunting gear back into their car to save Alphys’s poor back, and Toby was able to be let into the house. He was a big hit with Undyne, who laughed and played with him by standing her ground as the dog bolted at her at mach speed from the backyard. Toby had won that encounter, but only by a small margin.

They had dinner, chatted, and even helped him unpack a little. Overall, it was a wonderful, calming end to an exciting night! But, alas, as the saying goes; all good things must come to an end. And so it did when eventually it came time the two had to start heading home.

The trio had been sitting around the kitchen island, chatting about things that weren’t at all haunted house related. Alphys was in-depth explaining the plot of some horror manga she was trying to get Papyrus to read. Though at this point he wasn’t sure if he needed to read it to know what all happens, as Alphys was doing a pretty good job explaining out the entire plotline.

“A-and then h-he comes back to school, r-right?” Alphys chattered on, tapping her hands in a chopping motion against the tabletop, “A-and he’s turned into a sn-snail! L-Like dragging himself on-on the floor and e-everything. And-and then later more people st-start turning into snails, b-but that comes a-a lot later. So-so then he-”

A tone came from Papyrus’s phone as he was talking, cutting her infodumping short. He quickly reached to pull it out of his pocket and check what the alert was for. Oh, right! He had set a reminder to remind him of his reminder that in half an hour there would be a reminder that it was an hour until bedtime!...Reminder.

“Ah, my apologies. But I need to start getting ready for bed!” Papyrus relayed back to his guests. “I am trying to set a good sleep schedule for myself for when my classes start!”

“Ay, good on ya’!” Undyne remarked, taking a sip at the glass of water she’d been offered. “Man, I’m terrible at stickin’ to schedules. Takes a lotta willpower to do that.”

“Is-is it that late?” Alphys reached into her pockets to check the time on her own phone. “H-huh, guess it is. Uh! S-sorry for overstaying our welcome!” She stuffed her phone back into the pocket of her hoodie and slid down to the floor, making her way out to the foyer.

“Oh, not at all! I enjoyed the company!” Papyrus reassured her, getting up as well. “Ghosts are not very good conversationalists, unfortunately.”

“D-don’t I know it…” Alphys sighed, apparently still a little bit upset she hadn’t gotten all the info she wanted. She waited by the front door as Undyne retrieved her jacket from the living room. “B-but, uh! Th-this was fun! S-see you soon..?”

“I hope so!” Papyrus opened the door for them, shivering a bit as the cool night air made it’s way into the house. “Well, goodnight! Drive safe!”

Alphys bundled herself up in her hoodie with a little ‘brr’, and Undyne gave him a two-fingered salute on the way out. He waited for them to get in their car and start driving before he closed the door again, just in case. 

Well! What a night! Papyrus shut the door and triple made sure everything was locked up before going back to the kitchen to finish cleaning up. The two had been pretty good about picking up after themselves, the only thing Papyrus finding amiss was a small water spill on the counter which was quickly remedied with a paper towel. After that, it was time for lights out downstairs.

As he had the night before, he went around to make sure everything downstairs was turned off. Toby had taken up residency sprawled out on the couch as the night started winding down, and the new people weren’t as new and interesting anymore. Papyrus whistled a little bit to get Toby’s attention, the dog lifting his head up from the couch to look at him. He yawned and jumped down to the floor to walk towards Papyrus. Still a little bit sleepy as evidenced by the way he dragged his paws and just the faintest blep of tongue stuck out past his lips.

He’d get to go back to sleep soon enough, he just had to follow Papyrus up the stairs. Upon reaching the top floor, Papyrus found that the doors were still flung open, as he had left them. But he was a bit less pleased to find out his own bedroom door had been opened as well. He wondered how one went about setting boundaries with the restless dead, and then figured it was an issue for another time. Perhaps something to bring up with Alphys. 

For now he would focus on getting himself cleaned up for bed, reaching out to flip on the light switch in his room - when something on the bed made him stop dead in his tracks.

“Darling, if you wanted to have a conversation.” A cigarette holder was pulled away from dark lips. Pale whips of smoke curled into the air and vanished, leaving not a trace - not even the smell. Heavy eyelashes batted around an eye - a pink eye - that was fixed in Papyrus’s direction. “All you had to do was ask.”


End file.
